Method of manufacture of bow string

ABSTRACT

A method of manufacture of bow string for an archery bow utilizing shrinkable plastic tubing such as for instance heat shrinkable plastic tubing, for forming the loops on the ends of the bow string, for coaction with the ends of the bow in the propelling of an arrow. The purpose is to provide an arrangement for the expeditious forming of such loop portions and securement of the free ends of the strand material of the bow string to the latter. Applicant&#39;&#39;s arrangement obviates the heretofore utilized method of wrapping the base of each end loop of the bow string with encircling reinforcing cord. The use of shrinkable tubing materially expedites the formation of the bow string and makes a much more economically desirable bow string arrangement.

Jan. 30, 1973 c. J. ANGELOFF 3,714,316

METHOD OF MANUFACTURE OF BOW STRING Filed Nov. 6, 1970 so r -1- I /3 M4. B

ET F INVENTOR. /44 /6A Cnfifili J. fi/yea OFF I BY T" z g L 3,714,316 METHOD OF MANUFACTURE OF BOW STRING Charles J. Angelofi, 7669 Chillicothe Road, Mentor, Ohio 44060 Filed Nov. 6, 1970, Ser. No. 87,422 Int. Cl. B290 27/20 US. Cl. 264-230 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method of manufacture of bow string for an archery bow utilizing shrinkable plastic tubing such as for instance heat shrinkable plastic tubing, for forming the loops on the ends of the bow string, for coaction with the ends of the bow in the propelling of an arrow. The purpose is to provide an arrangement for the expeditious forming of such loop portions and securement of the free ends of the strand material of the bow string to the latter. Applicants arrangement obviates the heretofore utilized method of wrapping the base of each end loop of the bow string with encircling reinforcing cord. The use of shrinkable tubing materially expedites the formation of the bow string and makes a much more economically desirable bow string arrangement.

This invention relates in general to novel method of formation of bow string construction and more particularly a bow string construction wherein the looped ends thereof for coaction with the bow are formed with shrinkable plastic tubing sections encompassing the loops of the string, and the free ends of the string filament are connected or bound to the remainder of the bow string by means of shrinkable tubing sections.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Heretofore archery bow strings have been manufactured by utilizing a strand or strands of bow string material which is looped at its ends and then the free ends of the strand are individually bound to the rest of the strand or strands by a reinforcing winding or cord. This reinforcing winding is generally applied by hand, which necessitates considerable time and effort, and materially increases the cost of bow strings.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a novel bow string construction method which utilizes shrinkable plastic tubing such as heat shrinkable plastic tubing, for formation of the loops on the ends of the bow string arrangement and for securing the free ends of the bow string to the remainder of the bow string, to form an effective bow string.

Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a novel bow string arrangement method utilizing shrinkable plastic tubing for formation of the loops of the bow string.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a bow string method construction wherein shrinkable plastic tubing sections encircling the strand material are utilized to form the loops at the ends of the bow string, and other shrinkable plastic tubing sections are utilized to tie or bind the free ends of the loops to the remainder of the strand, to form the bow string.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a novel method for the formation of a bow string using shrinkable plastic tubing to greatly expedite the manufacture of the bow string, and make a bow string which is more economically competitive.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a method which eliminates the heretofore conventional ne United States Patent O ice cessity of hand winding reinforcing binding on the base of the loops formed at ends of the bow string.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a broken view of a bow string formed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic, broken illustration showing the construction of the bow string utilizing shrinkable plastic tubing sections for formation of the end loops of the bow string and also plastic tubing sections for binding the free ends of the loops to the remainder of the bow string filament, and a shrinkable plastic tubing section for binding the center section of the filament; in this embodiment, the loop binding sections of tubing contain the free end portions of the filament material and are gripped thereby;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary, enlarged side elevational view of one of the end loops of the bow string of FIG. 1 taken generally along the plane of line 3-3 thereof;

FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the invention wherein the overlapped free ends of the filament material are located in the central section of the bow string for securement by the central shrinkable tubing section;

FIG. 5 is a reduced size diagrammatic illustration of the stringing of the strand material of the bow string during production thereof, through the end loop tubing sections and the center tubing section when such sections are disposed in generally aligned rectilinear condition, with the free ends of the strand material coacting with the respective end loop tubing section; and

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic illustration of the assembly of one of the loop binding tubing sections onto its respective bow string loop.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now again to the drawings there is illustrated a bow string 10 formed in accordance with the present invention and including end loops 12, 12a which are adapted for coaction with the conventional bow for delivery of an associated arrow, and wherein the bow string is formed of strand material which can be natural strand or synthetic strand material or a combination thereof, such as, for instance, cotton or catgut (for natural) or nylon for synthetic.

The bow string can be formed of a plurality of filaments of the material, but is preferably one continuous strand disposed so as to provide a plurality of runs 13 such as for instance, is illustrated in FIG. 1. The finished bow string has shrinkable flexible plastic tubing sections 14, 14a encompassing the looped strand portions 12, 12a, and shrinkable flexible plastic tubing sections 16, 16a and 16b spaced along the lengthwise extent of the bow string, with tubing sections 16 and 16b forming reinforcing binding sections for the respective base of the looped tubing sections 14 and 14a, and with tubing section 16a forming the bow string central section, which is adapted for holding the strand runs 13 of the bow string together in a bundled mass, and for providing an area of the string adapted for coaction with the slot in the end of an arrow during the propulsion operation on the arrow by a bow.

In the preferred assembly of the tubing sections onto the bow string strand preparatory to shrinking of the tubing sections into gripping coaction with the bow string, the strand material is strung or threaded through the tubing sections 14, 16a and 14a, the latter being in conventional generally rectilinear form and disposed in gen- Patented Jan. 30, 1973- erally aligned relation, and as diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 5. As can be seen, the continuous strand is'threaded through the tubing sections 14, 16a and 14a and looped to form a plurality of the aforementioned runs 13 of strand material. Anexpeditious arrangement in this connection has been found to have the tubing sections 14 and 14a of approximate A inch internal diameter while the tubing section 16a being of approximately A; inch internal diameter. Tubing sections 16a may then be shrunk down upon the runs of strand material, such as for instance by application of predetermined heat to such tubing sections 16a, such section shrinking down into tight gripping engagement with the filaments of the strand material to bundle the latter tightly together. As can be seen from FIG. 5, the free ends 18 and 18a of the continuous filament of strand material extend out of the inner ends of the respective loop tubing section 14 or 14a.

The loop tubing sections 14 and 1411 may then be moved relative to the strand material lengthwise into encompassing relation to the respective loop portion 12 or 12a thereof and formed or bent into generally loop configuration to form the end loops of the bow string. During such movement, the free ends 18, 18a may be held to prevent their displacement. The looped plastic tube sections 14, 14a are then shrunk down upon the strand material as for instance by application of predetermined heat to such tube sections 14, 14a, such sections shrinking down into'tight grasping engagement with the filaments f the strand material and forming high strength loop portions at the upper and lower ends (with reference to FIG. 1) of the bow string.

Next, the binding tube sections 16, 16b are moved or pulled over the respective end loops 14, 14a (FIG. 6) and into encompassing overlapping relation with the generally juxtaposed ends of the respective shrunk down loop tube sections 14, 14a. In this connection, binding tubing sections 16, 16b are preferably of an internal diameter of sufiicient size (e.g. inch) to enable them to be fairly readily moved over the respective loop tubing section 14 or 14a. Then such plastic tube sections 16 and 16b are shrunk down by application of heat into clasping relation with the encompassed strand material and with the underlying ends of the respective of tube sections 14, 14a. It will be noted that the free ends 18, 18a of the strand (FIGS. 1 and 2) preferably extend out of the inner end of the respective binding tube section 16 or 16b, and such end portions are tightly bound to the remainder of the bow string, resulting in the formation of a high strength bow string. While the above describes the shrinking of tube section 16a, and tube sections 14, 14a as being accomplished sequentially, it will be understood that such shrinking could be accomplished simultaneously.

The tubing sections 14, 14a, 16, 16a and 16b can be conventional, commercially available heat shrinkable plastic tubing having, for instance, the aforediscussed internal diameters in the non-shrunk condition thereof. It will be seen that the formation of the bow string is very rapid since the assembly of the tubing sections onto the strand material of the bow string and the application of heat to the tubing sections for causing shrinkage thereof into tight clamping engagement with the bow string strand may be rapidly accomplished.

FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the invention wherein the free ends 18', 18a of the strand instead of being disposed in and grasped by a respective one of the binding tube sections 16 or 16b are disposed in the central tube section 16a so that upon shrinkage of the tubing section 16a, the free ends are clasped and anchored in non-movable relationship to form the finalized bow string product.

The assembly of the tubing sections onto the bow string strand may be generally similar to that described in connection with the first embodiment.

From the foregoing discussion and accompanying drawings, it will be seen that the invention provides a novel bow string construction and method of formation thereof, and more particularly a bow string construction wherein the loop ends thereof for coaction with the bow comprise plastic tubing sections encompassing the looped ends of the bow string with the free ends of the bow string strand being held in bound condition by means of shrinkable plastic tubing sections. The invention also provides a novel bow string construction and method of formation thereof wherein the plastic tubing sections are readily applied to the strand of the bow string and wherein the runs of the bow string filament are received in binding sections of plastic tubing, and providing an arrangement resulting in optimum effectiveness for use as a bow string and reduced costs in the formation of the bow string.

The terms and expressions which have been used are used as terms of description and not of limitation and there is no intention in the use of such terms and expressions of excluding any equivalents of any of the features shown or described, or portions thereof, and it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the invention claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. In a method of forming a bow string comprising taking a filament of how string material having free ends and forming it into a multi-run strand while passing the runs through a plurality of shrinkable plastic tubing sections, and forming loop portions at the ends of the multirun strand generally encompassed by a respective end tubing section for coaction with a bow, shrinking the end tubing sections down into tight gripping coaction with the respective encompassed end loop portion of strand material, assembling other shrinkable plastic tubing sections onto said bow string by moving said other plastic tubing sections over said tubing encompassed end loop portions lengthwise of the bow string and into encompassing relation to the looped ends of the respective first mentioned tubing sections, and then shrinking said other tubing sections down into tight gripping relation with the underlying of said looped ends and with the underlying strand material to tightly hold said tubing encompassed end loop portions in looped configuratin.

2. A method in accordance with claim 1 including disposing the free ends of the filament within and extending out of the respective one of said other tubing sections prior to shrinking the latter down into gripping relation whereby upon the last mentioned shrinking, said free ends are anchored against uncoupling movement relative to one another and to the bow string.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1 including assembling a further shrinkable plastic tubing section onto said how string generally centrally thereof in a direction lengthwise of said bow string prior to said assembly of said other tubing sections, and shrinking said further central tubing section down into gripping relation with the encompassed runs of strand material prior to assembly of said other tubing sections with said tubing encompassed end loop portions of said bow string.

4. A method in accordance with claim 3 including dis posing the free ends of the strand within and extending out of said further tubing section prior to shrinking the latter down into gripping relation whereby such free ends are anchored against uncoupling movement relative to one another.

5. In a method of forming a bow string comprising, taking a filament of bow string material having free ends and stringing it into a multi-run loop-like configuration and through three generally spaced shrinkable plastic tubing sections, to form a plurality of loop-like runs of the strand material, the intermediate of said tubing sections encompassing the generally central portion of the loopli'ke strand material and the outer ones of said tubing sections encompassing only one side of the runs of strand material, shrinking said intermediate tubing section down into tight gripping relation with the runs of strand material, moving the outer tubing sections outwardly relative to one another, lengthwise of the strand material and into encompassing relation with the respective end loop portion of the bow string, for coaction with a bow, then shrinking said outer tubing sections down into tight gripping coaction with the encompassed end loop portions of the strand material, moving another shrinkable plastic tubing section of sutficient internal diameter over the respective tubing encompassed end loop portion lengthwise of the bow string and into encompassing overlapping relation with the generally juxtaposed ends of the respective looped outer tubing section, and then shrinking said other tubing sections down into tight gripping coaction with the underlying ends of the respective of said outer tubing sections and with the underlying strand material to maintain the respective tubing encompassed end loop portion in tightly held looped configuration for coaction with the ends of a bow.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5 including holding the free ends of the filament while moving said outer References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,331,720 7/1967 Watson 124-30 A 2,577,466 12/1951 Jones 264249 3,445,898 5/1969 Goodrich 264230 X 3,198,059 8/1965 Phaneuf 264-1 X ROBERT F. WHITE, Primary Examiner R. R. KUCIA, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

